Readers, Texts, and the Fusion of Horizons: Theology and Gadamer’s Hermeneutics

Abstract

The practise of hermeneutics originates in a theological context, and indeed, the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer has exerted an influence over theologians and religious persons for the last half century. What if any relevance does a text, for instance, a biblical one, have for us today? Is it severed from us due to its historical and temporal distance? Even if it has some message which can be relevant today, how is one to access and interpret it? Gadamer deals with such issues in his masterwork Truth and Method, offering resources through his understanding of the nature of texts and what he calls the fusion of horizons. For Gadamer, an horizon constitutes one’s worldview. Yet this horizon is subject to expansion and revision, as well as contact with other horizons. In this process of fusing horizons, understanding occurs between minds, and one grows in one’s awareness and pur- suit of truth. Gadamer maintains that this can happen across both hermeneutical and historical boundaries, hence preserving the applicability of a text to a different context without compromising its unique historical origins.